“I’m not sure that I understand you,” said the correspondent of the Interviewer; “but I expect I shall before I leave.”
“He’s what’s called a cosmopolite,” Isabel suggested.
“That means he’s a little of everything and not much of any. I must say I think patriotism is like charity—it begins at home.”
“Ah, but where does home begin, Miss Stackpole?” Ralph enquired.
“I don’t know where it begins, but I know where it ends. It ended a long time before I got here.”
“Don’t you like it over here?” asked Mr. Touchett with his aged, innocent voice.
“Well, sir, I haven’t quite made up my mind what ground I shall take. I feel a good deal cramped. I felt it on the journey from Liverpool to London.”
“Perhaps you were in a crowded carriage,” Ralph suggested.
“Yes, but it was crowded with friends—party of Americans whose acquaintance I had made upon the steamer; a lovely group from Little Rock, Arkansas. In spite of that I felt cramped—I felt something pressing upon me; I couldn’t tell what it was. I felt at the very commencement as if I were not going to accord with the atmosphere. But I suppose I shall make my own atmosphere. That’s the true way—then you can breathe. Your surroundings seem very attractive.”
“Ah, we too are a lovely group!” said Ralph. “Wait a little and you’ll see.”